West Russian Volunteer Army

The West Russian Volunteer Army was a White Russian army that was active in the Baltics from 1918 to 1920 during the Russian Civil War. The army was created and supported by the German Empire, and it grew to have a strength of 50,000 soldiers; the Germans were allowed to remain in the Baltics to fight off the Bolsheviks between the World War I armistice of 11 November 1918 and the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919. The order to withdraw was signed after the Treaty of Versailles was enacted, and many of the Baltische Landeswehr soldiers were allowed to join the Volunteer Army. The West Russian Volunteer Army's 50,000 troops consisted of Freikorps soldiers, Baltic Germans, and Imperial Russian Army prisoners-of-war who agreed to fight against the Bolsheviks. In October 1919, the West Russian Volunteer Army attacked the recently-independent countries of Lithuania and Latvia, and the Latvians received assistance from Estonian reinforcements and from British Royal Navy warships. In November 1919, the West Russian Volunteer Army suffered heavy defeats at the hands of Lithuania near  Radviliskis, and the remnants of the army withdrew into Germany, where they were disbanded in 1920.